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Update 19 is live!

  By development, updates

Update 19 consists of mostly underlying work to upgrade the game engine. Windstone now uses version 4.19 of the UE4 engine. Windstone will upgrade to 4.20 and 4.21 in the future and with each subsequent update to the UE4 engine when the new versions are stable. As of now, version 4.20 and 4.21 have an issue with the Blueprint Compilation Manager that conflicts with Windstone.

This engine upgrade required many things to change in Windstone’s code, most of which is not apparent to the player, but the end result and development functionality is much better. A visual and performance increase should be immediately noticeable.

Other changes and fixes:

The custom mouse cursor now looks like a stone arrow head again instead of the standard windows arrow.

The custom mouse cursor also now appears at the same spot at the center of the screen when menus are activated.

An issue is fixed that caused the leg armour animation to become out of sync with the leg animation while walking.

A counter measure has been added to help keep from getting stuck in foundations when loading a game that was saved while standing in a building. A better fix is being worked on but this will be determined by how the new level streaming/loading system evolves as it is still a work in progress.

Button highlights in the inventory have been disabled. Upgrading the engine caused them to bug out entirely and much of the inventory drag-and-drop programming had to be changed. For now, the highlights are deemed unnecessary but may be implemented again in the future.

The Details pop-up Widget when mousing over an inventory item now shows after .5 seconds in both the inventory and storage. The position of the pop-up relative to the mouse cursor has also been changed slightly due to the custom cursor. A user setting may be added to change the time delay for the pop-up or to disable it entirely, but that’s in the bells and whistles category for much much later unless enough people want it sooner and protest.

Windstone should now open in full screen by default instead of windowed mode.

It now takes 3x longer for your mental fortitude to become muddled from all effects. If you die now from being muddled you better just stay indoors for the rest of your life.  Some day I plan on adding difficulty levels where the muddled mechanic will be different for each one. For now, keep mushrooms on you and room in your belly to eat them at all times for emergencies and becoming muddled will never be a problem. Most mushrooms increase your mental fortitude. Warning: There are very few mushrooms in the snow biome except for what you may randomly find in storage baskets.

The female proxy character has been added to the dragon. When you are mounted on a dragon (the camera switches automatically to third person) you will now see some of the weapons and armour that you have equipped that are visible on your character in the inventory menu.

The default FOV (Field of View) has changed due to the engine upgrade. It is still not adjustable in options, but it is wider than it was. FOV adjustability is another for the bells and whistles of the future.

Stone arrows now inflict about 2x more damage and Obsidian arrows about 3x more.

Harvesting meat, carapace, hide and feathers from carcasses now will happen with every swing of the knife or hammer (the hammer is only used for carapace). Instead of the Obsidian Knife giving a higher chance of harvesting with each swing, it now allows you to harvest twice as much meat and feathers.

Below are known issues that have cropped up since the engine upgrade and have yet to be fixed:

The LOD system is completely different and may not be as optimized as it once was. This can cause some visual and performance degradation. I will be working on this more as everything is adapted to the new version of the engine.

AI and navigation of wildlife has more issues, especially with the Formicans on inclines and the Ostri in general. For the most part they still seek and attack you in the same way when you are close enough to them, but you may find yourself looking at the wildlife from a distance and thinking, “wtf is that creature doing over there?” as the creature tries to figure out wtf it is doing.

Some stones may not be able to be picked up that were able to be picked up before.  Please let me know if you find any other item that is not able to be picked up (that you knew you could pick up before). Basically every thing should be able to be pickup up or destroyed except for the grass, the pre-existing buildings and some ground foliage.

When loading a game from a save, it may hang at 40% (SaveInterfaceCall) for a few minutes. This did not happen before upgrading to 4.19. I’m working on a fix for this now as this is a huge priority.

Thank you for playing Windstone!

Originally posted @ itch.io, which is also where you can get the game.

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Update 18 is live!

  By development, updates

With update 18 comes the much requested female player character, the framework for major performance optimization and much more.

When starting a new game you can now choose between either a male or a female character. After choosing the gender of your character you can now choose which region of the world to start in: The Frozen North, The Jungle Mountains, The Southern Shore or The Island. Each region has multiple random starting points within.

Dozens of Points of Interest (POI) are now pre-marked on the map as a white dot. These mostly include villages, major landmarks and the Dragon Keeps. The POI marker will turn yellow after it has been discovered and you will gain a substantial amount of experience points.

Your character model proxy on the inventory menu will now show your equipped weapons and tools on their belt and strapped to their back. Previously only the armour, quiver and arrows would be visible on the proxy.  A change has also been made that has stopped the arrows from quivering in the… quiver…

New building pieces have been added: A triangle wood floor foundation, a triangle shaped roof section for wood huts that corresponds with angles made with the triangle wood floor and a complete roof cap section that can be placed on top of a “round” hexagon hut made with 6 triangle foundations. The triangle foundations can be used in conjunction with the square foundations to create as big or as large of a circular foundation as you please. Explore the newly added villages for examples and building ideas for your own designs. This only applies to the wood hut constructions for now in the warmer climates. Triangle foundations will be added to the stone huts in the cold climates in the future.

2 times more wildlife spawns have been added to the map. With this change is also an optimization that unloads individual wildlife from the game when you are very far away from them. Previously the wildlife would be “deactivated” when far away, but unloading them completely greatly increases performance once hundreds of creatures have been loaded into the game.

Visit the desert to find a new oasis and a Great Pyramid filled with labyrinthine tunnels and treasure. This Pyramid is similar to the one on the floating island, but you don’t have to have a dragon to reach it.

2 animated Non Player Characters, (NPCs) have been added to a large hut in the center of the Jungle Mountains area. They cannot yet be interacted with, but the framework for NPC interactions is being worked on. They will offer quests and story lore in the future.

When you have gauntlets equipped, they will now appear on your forearms in first-person view while wielding the Maul and Axe that was added in Update 17.

A Stone Wall crafting recipe has been fixed. It previously needed wood and now correctly needs stone.

The time it takes to become overfed has been decreased and the time it takes for your nutrition to stabilize has been slightly increased. (You shouldn’t become overfed as much when eating a lot and if you do become overfed it should wear off more quickly)

Various other bug fixes:

Fixed an issue that would disable drinking wells
Fixed an issue where full water gourds could not be picked up.
Fixed an issue with the Antelope Hide Poncho not showing on the proxy character when equipped.
Fixed a visual glitch with the horizon where the ocean meets the sky. In the process, the position of the distant mountain ranges on the far horizon have been altered.
Fixed a problem with aggressive wildlife not sensing the enemy in certain circumstances.
There is now a chance to have twins when hatching a dragon egg. Good luck with that. Feeding one is difficult enough.
Fixed an issue with the sound effect of fire crackling not playing.
Fixed an issue with shadows of the player’s equipped armor when mounted.

Known issues:

When choosing a female character, your first person view (when you look down and see your own body) your third person view (when riding a raft and hang glider) and the proxy character on the inventory menu all work correctly, BUT… when you mount your dragon you become male again until you dismount… This will be fixed in the next update.

I’ve also encountered an issue where armor pieces on the first person character become desynced from the body. Even though this happens rarely and can be fixed by crouching and standing up again, I am working on a fix. If anyone can reproduce this glitch please let me know exactly how you do it as it will help me fix it.

Thanks for playing Windstone!

I may begin streaming again soon at twitch.tv/thresholdseven

I hope to playtest and demonstrate Windstone live as well as play other games. I’ve been streaming on Twitch periodically for years, but I take long breaks to focus entirely on the development of Windstone. Now that update 18 is out I would like to take a little more time to stream and get feedback from playtesters to help guide the direction of Windstone for Update 19.

Much is already planned and being worked on for update 19 but the will of the playtesters can change priorities. Check out the Road Map forum section of Windstone on itch.io to see what is in the works and to give your input on what you would like to see implemented first or worked on the most.

Thanks again,
Ryan, ThresholdSeven

Originally posted @ itch.io which is also where you can get the game!